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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
116. And we are not to understand, that the holy Angels dwell only above the Stars without the Place of this World, as Reason, which understands nothing of God, fancies; indeed they dwell without the Dominion and Source of this World, but in the Place of this World, although there is no Place in the Eternity; the Place of this World, and also the Place without this World, is all one to them. 17. For the Beginning of the Source, viz. of the four Elements, together with the Astrum [or Planetary Orb], make only one Place; there is no Place in the Internal, but All wholly entire; whatsoever is above the Stars without this World, that is likewise internally without the four Elements in the Place of this World; else God were divided. 18. The Angelical World is in the Place of this World internally; and this same World's Abyss is the great Darkness, where the Devils have their Dominion; which also is not confined or shut up in any Place; for the Eternity is also their Place, where there is no Byss; only the Essence and Property of their World is the Byss of their Habitation; as the four Elements are the Habitation of our external Humanity. They have also in the Darkness an Element, according to the dark World's Property, else God were divided in his Wrath; for wherever I can say, here is God in his Love, even there I can also say, that God is in his Anger, only a Principle severs it.
219. Like as we Men see not the Angels and Devils with our Eyes; and yet they are about us, and among us. The Reason is, because they dwell not in the Source and Dominion of our World; neither have they the Property of the external World on them; but each Spirit is cloathed with his own World's Property wherein it dwells. 20. The Beginning of each World's Source is that Limit which divides one World from the View and Observation of the other; for the Devils are a Nothing in the heavenly Source, for they have not its Source in them; and although they have it, yet it is to them as if it were shut up in Death; like as an Iron that is red hot; so long as the Fire pierces it, it is Fire; and when the Fire goes out, it is a dark Iron : The like is to be understood concerning the Spirits. 21. So likewise the Angels are a Nothing in the Darkness; they are verily in it, but they neither see nor feel it; that which is a Pain to the Devils, that same is a Joy to the Angels in their Source; and so, what is pleasing and delightful to the Devils, that the Angels cannot endure; there is a great Gulf between them, that is, a whole Birth.
322. For what else is able to sever the Light from the Darkness, but only a Birth of Sight, or Light: [ John 1.] The Light dwells in the Darkness, and the Darkness comprehends it not. As the external Sunshine dwells and shines in the Darkness of this World, and the Darkness comprehends it not; but when the Light of the Sun withdraws, then the Darkness is manifest : Here is no other Gulf between them, but only a Birth. 23. Thus we are likewise to conceive of the Eternal Light of God, and the Eternal Darkness of God's Anger. There is but one only Ground of All; and that is the manifested God: But it is severed into divers Principles and Properties; for the Scripture says, that the Holy is unto God a good Savour to Life; understand to the holy divine Life, viz. in the Power of the Light; and the Wicked is unto God a good Savour to Death, that is, in his Wrath, viz. in the Essence, Source, and Dominion of the dark World. 24. For the God of the holy World, and the God of the dark World, are not two Gods; there is but one only God. He himself is the whole Being; he is Evil [In his Wrath Plagues, and Hell-Torment] and Good; Heaven and Hell; Light and Darkness; Eternity and Time; Beginning and End: Where his Love is hid in any Thing [Being, Essence or Substance], there his Anger is manifest. In many a Thing Love and Anger are in equal Measure and Weight; as is to be understood in this outward World's Essence.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
116. And we are not to understand, that the holy Angels dwell only above the Stars without the Place of this World, as Reason, which understands nothing of God, fancies; indeed they dwell without the Dominion and Source of this World, but in the Place of this World, although there is no Place in the Eternity; the Place of this World, and also the Place without this World, is all one to them. 17. For the Beginning of the Source, viz. of the four Elements, together with the Astrum [or Planetary Orb], make only one Place; there is no Place in the Internal, but All wholly entire; whatsoever is above the Stars without this World, that is likewise internally without the four Elements in the Place of this World; else God were divided. 18. The Angelical World is in the Place of this World internally; and this same World's Abyss is the great Darkness, where the Devils have their Dominion; which also is not confined or shut up in any Place; for the Eternity is also their Place, where there is no Byss; only the Essence and Property of their World is the Byss of their Habitation; as the four Elements are the Habitation of our external Humanity. They have also in the Darkness an Element, according to the dark World's Property, else God were divided in his Wrath; for wherever I can say, here is God in his Love, even there I can also say, that God is in his Anger, only a Principle severs it.
219. Like as we Men see not the Angels and Devils with our Eyes; and yet they are about us, and among us. The Reason is, because they dwell not in the Source and Dominion of our World; neither have they the Property of the external World on them; but each Spirit is cloathed with his own World's Property wherein it dwells. 20. The Beginning of each World's Source is that Limit which divides one World from the View and Observation of the other; for the Devils are a Nothing in the heavenly Source, for they have not its Source in them; and although they have it, yet it is to them as if it were shut up in Death; like as an Iron that is red hot; so long as the Fire pierces it, it is Fire; and when the Fire goes out, it is a dark Iron : The like is to be understood concerning the Spirits. 21. So likewise the Angels are a Nothing in the Darkness; they are verily in it, but they neither see nor feel it; that which is a Pain to the Devils, that same is a Joy to the Angels in their Source; and so, what is pleasing and delightful to the Devils, that the Angels cannot endure; there is a great Gulf between them, that is, a whole Birth.
322. For what else is able to sever the Light from the Darkness, but only a Birth of Sight, or Light: [ John 1.] The Light dwells in the Darkness, and the Darkness comprehends it not. As the external Sunshine dwells and shines in the Darkness of this World, and the Darkness comprehends it not; but when the Light of the Sun withdraws, then the Darkness is manifest : Here is no other Gulf between them, but only a Birth. 23. Thus we are likewise to conceive of the Eternal Light of God, and the Eternal Darkness of God's Anger. There is but one only Ground of All; and that is the manifested God: But it is severed into divers Principles and Properties; for the Scripture says, that the Holy is unto God a good Savour to Life; understand to the holy divine Life, viz. in the Power of the Light; and the Wicked is unto God a good Savour to Death, that is, in his Wrath, viz. in the Essence, Source, and Dominion of the dark World. 24. For the God of the holy World, and the God of the dark World, are not two Gods; there is but one only God. He himself is the whole Being; he is Evil [In his Wrath Plagues, and Hell-Torment] and Good; Heaven and Hell; Light and Darkness; Eternity and Time; Beginning and End: Where his Love is hid in any Thing [Being, Essence or Substance], there his Anger is manifest. In many a Thing Love and Anger are in equal Measure and Weight; as is to be understood in this outward World's Essence.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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